November 13, 2012

Last month Yelp hosted the third annual Yelp’s Small Business Advisory Council (YSBAC) meeting where this year's group of council members shared their feedback with Yelp. Input from previous summits went on to directly impact several features Yelp launched in 2012, so we were excited to hear new ideas.

During the event, business owners from the US, UK, and Canada had candid discussions with representatives from our product, sales, legal, and executive teams including a round table dialogue with our co-founder and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. The meetings provided a format for YSBAC members to brainstorm ways that Yelp can continue improving its offering to the business community, and in some cases, air their concerns.

This year’s summit generated a healthy list of ideas, and YSBAC members will work with Yelp’s Business Outreach team over the coming months to make some of these potential projects a reality. Some previous YSBAC action items which have come to life include the launch of Yelp Metrics, the addition of business owner review comments on mobile, and Yelp’s series of Town Hall events.

As council member Matt Berman of Bolt Barbers put it, “through their Small Business Advisory Council, Yelp taps real business owners to provide feedback, strategize, enhance, and optimize its already phenomenal benchmark operation to be even more relevant. I'm personally surprised by the openness, willingness, and appetite of the Yelp team to rally, involve, engage, and dialogue with small businesses in their pursuit of excellence.”

Be sure to check out our Blog for Business Owners to read more from our YSBAC members in the future, as well as updates on new products and features.